Technologist and Maker

After many month of owning my Printrbot Plus I am finally up and running. As you may know, Printrbot was created by Brook Drumm and started as a kit on kickstarter in 2011. I bought my printer after the Printrbot kickstarter campaign ended and my printer (Printrbot Plus) embodies some upgrades not available with the original Printrbot kickstarter (heated bed, ability to print PLA, etc.).

Through my journey of setting up my Printrbot Plus kit and getting good quality prints, I realize there are two paths you can take as a hobbyist interested in 3D printing. You can purchase a high-end, high-cost consumer printer (e.g. Makerbot) and get an experience that is closer to using an appliance. Or you can purchase a kit or printer that uses commercial and open source software which is more of a tool and requires you to get to know the hardware and software intimately in order to get good quality prints. Ultimately, the path you choose depends on what you are looking to get out of 3D printing. If you don’t care or want to know all the nitty gritty details of 3D printing, an appliance if more appropriate for you. If you like to tinker, suffer from the Maker mindset, or want to really understand the printer hardware and software details, a tool approach will serve you best.

I have to admit that I was a bit frustrated that I was not able to 3D print immediately after I assembled my kit and had to fix an issue on my printer (I left a gear set screw too loose and it was causing my y axis to slip/drift therefore resulting in prints that were at about a 45 degree angle when they should have been 90 degrees). And if you asked me while battling my printing issue shortly after assembly, I probably would have opted for a printer that is more of an appliance. These appliance printers come fully assembled and somewhat tested/calibrated. They use proprietary software that is streamlined for the hardware and generally allow you to get decent prints within an hour or so of unboxing the printer.

My Printrbot Plus kit took me about 15 hours to assemble and another 10-20 hours or so to calibrate and experiment and get a good print. You should investigate the instructions available for your kit. The Printrbot is definitely not difficult to assemble, but it is a bit of a puzzle at times because the instructions are fairly high level and more based on pictures rather than text providing details. Also consider whether there is any support for the printer you are considering. Although I did not use formal support, Printrbot does offer free email support and the people that work for Printrbot (met many at Makerfaire in San Mateo) are super helpful! I was spending a 15-30 minutes here and there to get my printer calibrated and tuned, so it took many months. Below is a functioning whistle I printed using a design (STL file) from thingiverse.com.

Looking back, I’m really grateful that I built a kit. It allowed me to get familiar with the hardware components of a 3D printer and, most importantly, made the machine much less intimidating. By the time I had assembled the machine, I understood which motors controlled which axis, how everything was wired and how to assemble and disassemble everything. I realized that, if necessary, I could dismantle any portion of the machine and rebuilt it. It turns out that shortly after initial assembly I had to disassemble a portion of the machine to be able to tighten the gear that controls the Y axis (front and back movement of bed). During initial assembly I had not tightened the Y axis motor’s gear set screw tight enough and it was slipping during printing.

Writing this blog reminds me that, for me, being a Maker is so much about the journey (learning about 3D printing, meeting interesting people online and in person) as much as it is about the destination (getting good quality 3D prints).

If you are thinking of getting into 3D printing, I’d recommend you buy a printer to have at your home. That way you can spend a bit of time here and there as learning 3D printing takes time and is an iterative process. The more time you spend in front of the printer the better. Ultimately, I’d highly recommend the Printrbot printers and Printrbot kits for any Makers or DIY enthusiasts. Regardless of the 3D printer that you buy, make sure you pay the few extra bucks to get a printer with a heated bed and ability to print both PLA and ABS.

Earlier in July, SparkFun announced the introduction of a new service to push Internet of Things device data, data.sparkfun.com. Esentially, data.sparkfun.com is a data channel where data can be pushed (easily via HTTP posts) to a persistent repository on the Internet. So your Internet of Things devices are able to send data to a single repository. SparkFun wants to provide a “robust service for use with all your projects”.

Like anything in life, although well put together, there are some reasonable limitation on the free service. Each project that you register (referred to as a stream) has a limit of 50MBs of data. Once the 50 MBs is exceeded, older data is deleted as newer data is received. Additionally, 100 pushes to the stream are allowed over a 15 minute period, which allows you to either push data in bursts or distribute them as is appropriate for your particular needs. Also, all streams are publicly accessible to anyone with the correct URL.

That being said, the service utilizes Phant, an open source engine developed by SparkFun that is freely downloadable in the case where you want to run the servers on your own (cloud) hardware. If you run the service locally, you can configure the installation to allow for arbitrary storage scenarios and are not limited to 50Mbs.

Finally, there are great examples of how to hook up Google Charts JavaScript library to implement a simple graph of your live logged data.

In less than an hour, I was able to setup a custom stream to record the running history of my Internet controlled stoplight that indicates the quality of our software build at work. Using a simple HTTP POST, approximately every 30 seconds I log the data to my data.sparkfun.com stream and the allow reporting via Google Charts. All I can say is absolutely amazing!

After about two years since the launch of the Raspberry Pi model B, the Raspberry Pi Foundation launched the Raspberry Pi model B+. Although exciting, the model B+ is more of an evolutionary change (incremental) vs. a revolutionary (transformational) change. Some of the major changes in the model B+ include:

The B+ has 40 general purpose I/O (GPIO) pins, 14 more than the model B. Conveniently, the first 26 GPIO pins are the same on the model b and B+

The composite audio and video are combined into one jack and audio quality is improved, the camera display connector and Ethernet port remain unchanged

However minor, the power USB port has been moved to the side of the board next to the HDMI connector, which is nice to no longer have cables necessary on one side of the board.

Two addition mounting holes are provided which makes mounting the board in enclosures a bit easier.

The SD card has been replaced with a micro SD card that protrudes much less from the bottom side of the board.

And possibly one of the best improvements of the model B+, especially where batteries are used to power the board, is the reduction in power required for the model B+ (reduced power consumption by between 0.5W and 1W).

The Raspberry Pi Foundation plans to continue production of both the Raspberry Pi model B and B+, both of which are available for purchase for $35. Outside of commercial use the Pi, where specific hardware enclosures have been fabricated for the model B, the model B+ will be the more popular model moving forward.